Oddly, I saw this book reviewed in several papers this week. I suppose Holmes either has a great reputation or a terrific publicist, because the subject matter does not scream “it book.” However, Lewis’s lively review serves to pass along some of the exuberance and energy he finds in Holmes’s account of the first people to fly. Between that energy and the zany-sounding account of balloon-obsessed, late-1700s Paris, Falling Upwards looks like a solid bet.

In Sedgwick’s YA novel, a blind British teenager takes off for America in search of her missing father, with her 7-year-old brother as a guide. Said compares it to The Catcher in the Rye and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and it certainly sounds worth a shot.